{"id":12077,"date":"2017-03-23T18:02:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-24T01:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=12077"},"modified":"2017-03-23T18:01:20","modified_gmt":"2017-03-24T01:01:20","slug":"capitol-chaos-and-pipeline-peril-bradcast-3232017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=12077","title":{"rendered":"Capitol Chaos and Pipeline Peril: &#8216;BradCast&#8217; 3\/23\/2017"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/Images\/BradCast_TrumpTruckScream_AFP_032317.jpg\" hspace=\"6\" vspace=\"3\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">On today&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><i>BradCast<\/i><\/a>, while the scheme to replace ObamaCare remains a disaster for Trump and Republicans in Congress, and as Dems begin to mount opposition to the confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch, at least the President&#8217;s hope of completing two massive oil pipelines is going well, right? Maybe not. [<i>Audio link to show follows below.<\/i>]\n<p>Chaos <a href=\"http:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/dc\/obamacare-dday\">continued<\/a> today on Capitol Hill, as Trump and GOP House leadership were unable to amend their bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (&#8220;ObamaCare&#8221;) as promised, in time to hold their planned vote today, the 7th anniversary of the signing of Barack Obama&#8217;s landmark health care insurance bill. In a <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/b8a0da7890374f09bd256fff2b721ace\">&#8220;stinging setback&#8221;<\/a> Republicans were forced to delay the floor vote after failing to whip enough support from both Republican &#8220;conservatives&#8221; <i>and<\/i> &#8220;moderates&#8221; alike to ensure passage.<\/p>\n<p>The vote has now been <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-usa-obamacare-idUSKBN16U14Q\">rescheduled<\/a> for Friday, though that too remains uncertain at the moment, even after Trump and Ryan agreed with the far-right Freedom Caucus to do away with the <a href=\"http:\/\/obamacarefacts.com\/essential-health-benefits\/\">10 Essential Health Benefits<\/a> &#8212; basic services like outpatient, emergency room, hospital, mental health, prenatal care and prescription drug coverage &#8212; required to be included with each policy sold under ObamaCare. And all of that played out today as a devastating <a href=\"https:\/\/poll.qu.edu\/national\/release-detail?ReleaseID=2443\">new Quinnipiac poll<\/a> revealed the GOP&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/congress\/cbo-new-health-bill-would-leave-millions-uninsured-save-less-n737881\">deadly<\/a> healthcare plan is <i>wildly<\/i> unpopular among American voters (including Republicans).<\/p>\n<p>As that mess was happening in the House, the Democratic minority leader in the Senate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/powerpost\/gorsuch-confirmation-hearing-to-focus-today-on-testimony-from-friends-foes\/2017\/03\/23\/14d21116-0fc7-11e7-9d5a-a83e627dc120_story.html\">announced<\/a> his intention to vote against the confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch, the President&#8217;s nominee to fill the GOP&#8217;s stolen seat on the U.S. Supreme Court and urged his colleagues to join him in filibustering to block Gorsuch. Some Democrats, however, are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2017\/03\/gorsuch-democrats-supreme-court-236384\">reportedly<\/a> hoping to cut a deal with Republicans to support Gorsuch in exchange for not doing away with the right to filibuster SCOTUS nominees <i>in the future<\/i>. (You can call your Senator &#8212; particularly Democratic Senators up for re-election next year in states said to have been won by Trump last year &#8212; at 202-224-3121 if you&#8217;ve got an opinion about that, or just to let them know how you expect them to vote.)<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, receiving far less coverage, Trump&#8217;s push for two new massive oil pipelines is moving ahead apace. The Dakota Access Pipeline is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/articles\/health_and_science\/climate_desk\/2017\/03\/oil_will_run_through_the_dakota_access_pipeline_this_week.html\">reportedly<\/a> set to start sending crude from North Dakota to Illinois any day now. But the controversial KeystoneXL pipeline to send dirty tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada down to the Gulf of Mexico for export, may soon run into a number of problems. In fact, though it&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.desmog.ca\/2017\/03\/14\/three-reasons-why-keystone-xl-may-never-get-built\">expected<\/a> to receive approval from Trump&#8217;s State Department very soon, the $8 billion pipeline may never actually be completed at all, according to our guest today, <b>James Wilt<\/b>, freelance reporter at DeSmog Canada.<\/p>\n<p>Wilt details the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.desmog.ca\/2017\/03\/14\/three-reasons-why-keystone-xl-may-never-get-built\">three main obstacles<\/a> &#8212; economics, land owners and climate\/environment &#8212; that, he reports, could end up delaying or permanently derailing the completion of the Canadian-owned pipeline which the Obama Administration had previously rejected.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, we finish up today with some listener mail in response to a number of recent shows regarding the stolen SCOTUS nominee and <i>Citizens United<\/i>&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\".\/Images\/Speaker_Icon_24.png\" style=\"width: 24px; float: none; vertical-align: middle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px; line-height: 18px;\"> <b><i><a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/audio\/BradCast_BradFriedman_CapitolChaos_AHCAStalls_JamesWiltKXL_032317.mp3\">CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!&#8230;<\/a><\/i><\/b><br \/>\n[audio:http:\/\/bradblog.com\/audio\/BradCast_BradFriedman_CapitolChaos_AHCAStalls_JamesWiltKXL_032317.mp3]<\/blockquote>\n<p><center><b>* * *<\/b><\/center><i>While we post <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><\/i>The BradCast<i><\/a> here every day, and you can hear it across all of our great affiliate stations and websites, to automagically get new episodes as soon as they&#8217;re available sent right to your computer or personal device, subscribe for free at <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-bradcast-w-brad-friedman\/id803467610\">iTunes<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/stitcher.com\/s\/player.php?fid=25838&#038;src=psl\">Stitcher<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/tunein.com\/radio\/The-BradCast-with-Brad-Friedman-p477565\/\">TuneIn<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/podcastgen\/bradcast\/feed.xml\">our native RSS feed<\/a>!<\/i><\/p>\n<p><!--BB-DONATEPITCH-START--><\/p>\n<div style=\"background:#f5f0e0; border:2px solid #6b5a2e; border-radius:6px; padding:10px 14px; text-align:center; font-family:Georgia,serif;\"><span style=\"display:block; margin:0 0 8px 0; color:#3a2e0e; font-size:0.95em; line-height:1.5;\"><strong>The BRAD BLOG<\/strong>, <em>The BradCast<\/em> and <em>Green News Report<\/em> are all 100% independent and 100% listener and reader supported!<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/Donate\" style=\"display:inline-block; background:#6b5a2e; color:#ffffff; padding:6px 18px; border-radius:4px; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; font-family:Georgia,serif; font-size:0.9em;\">Please CLICK HERE to help support our work today!<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!--BB-DONATEPITCH-END--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On today&#8217;s BradCast, while the scheme to replace ObamaCare remains a disaster for Trump and Republicans in Congress, and as Dems begin to mount opposition to the confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch, at least the President&#8217;s hope of completing two massive oil pipelines is going well, right? Maybe not. [Audio link to show follows below.] [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,89,675,500,333,543,866,299,479,390,739,200,288,800,619,477,932,540,834,558,300,423,349,198,233,313],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-12077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-barack-obama","category-media-appearance","category-bradcast","category-canada","category-chuck-schumer","category-climate-change","category-dakota-access-pipeline","category-democrats","category-donald-trump","category-economy","category-eminent-domain","category-environment","category-health-care","category-justin-trudeau","category-keystone-xl","category-kpfk","category-neil-gorsuch","category-oil","category-paris-agreement","category-paul-ryan","category-republicans","category-south-dakota","category-state-department","category-us-house","category-us-senate","category-us-supreme-court","bb-type-bradcast"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12077\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12077"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=12077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}